baby, it's cold outside
by iseesparksfly
Summary: In which Austin is the annoying neighbour that plays Christmas music way too loudly in an attempt to get the cute girl from next door to visit / or Austin and Ally are stuck in a shopping line. One shot.


**Summary:** In which austin is the annoying neighbour that plays christmas music way too loud in an attempt to get the cute girl from next door to visit / or austin and ally are stuck in a shopping line

_Of course_ she's doing all her Christmas shopping at the last minute.

And _of course_ the store is heaving with panicked shoppers who have done the exact same thing.

And _of course_ after fighting his way through the throng of people she's now stuck in a never-ending queue that winds around the store twice. She knows he only has herself to blame, as the last two weeks or so had consisted of her watching the clouds pass by from her living room, composing and trying her level best to block out the festive music that was being played obnoxiously loud from the apartment opposite her own.

It's not like she's a scrooge, even though she's spending Christmas alone this year, it's just that the never ending muffled rendition of 'baby, it's cold outside' has been permanently engraved into her head for what feels like forever, and no matter how often she prays, the owner had not ceased the music since the beginning of December. She would go over and say something but confrontational is not a part of her nature. Tall, blond and handsome, but also stubborn as hell, was how she'd describe her neighbour, who proceeds to crank the stereo as loud as possible seemingly whenever he hears her slam her door in frustration as she enters the building.

By tall she means 6 foot, by blond she means messy tousled hair and by handsome she means...well, way too attractive for his own good. But that's not important. What's important is that he seems to live to annoy her and he plays his music far too loud and he has a really nice smile- damn it.

She shakes her head and scolds herself, she doesn't even _know _him. She just knows he likes _'baby, it's cold outside' _far too much.

She can still hear it as she waits in line, standing in front of a customer who obviously thinks it's hilarious to tug on her hair and irritate her though she won't give them the satisfaction of knowing she's annoyed, clutching the presents to her chest; leopard print pyjamas for her dad, an accordion for her mum and an animal encyclopaedia for Trish. Wait that doesn't sound right-

Tug.

She closes her eyes and counts to ten under her breath, reassuring herself that soon this shopping trip will be over. She can go home, make some eggnog, maybe watch some daytime tv and actually be able to hear the dialogue if her neighbour was out-

Tug.

A chant starts to form inside her head; Ignore the irritating person, count to 10, ignore the irritating person, count to-

Tug.

"Can you please stop?" She says, spinning around to face the culprit, still with her eyes shut and trying to keep her voice as level and calm as possible. After all it was the holiday season. She just had to count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5-

"Oh hey neighbour!"

Her counting stops. It can't be.

Slowly she opens her eyes and is met with the grinning face of her Christmas music loving, male neighbour. Well at least she knows that he's out, it's just a shame that he was _here. _

Ignoring the glare that was being sent directly to him from the short brunette, and casually placing his hands in his pockets, he continues to grin. She bites her cheek in an attempt to not sound annoyed and gives out a forced smile. She emits a robotic nod of the head (she's never been good talking with people, let alone annoying neighbours) and stutters out an awkward 'hello'. It's awkward because she doesn't know him, not because he's handsome (although her sweating palms and increased pulse say otherwise.)

"So what are you doing here?" he asks, seemingly oblivious to both her tone and to the wrapping paper and pile of gift items that she's currently struggling to hold. And the fact that it's Christmas Eve.

"Uh, Christmas shopping?" she says, although it comes out as a question. She's not sure if he's seriously asking her or is just trying to make conversation. She wishes he wouldn't.

"Move." Well, that wasn't really the response she was expecting. Seeing her offended expression, his eyes widen and he gesticulates frantically.

"No, no, the line's moved forward. You need to move." he reassures her, gently taking her shoulders and shifting her body backwards, not noticing that she completely tenses up the moment he touches her.

She'll reassure herself that it's only because she doesn't want him touching her. It's not like it's the complete opposite or that she internally freaked out for a second or anything. Okay maybe she did, but now she's angry at herself and all she wants is to get away from this stranger, who's really not a stranger.

"Hey, want me to hold some of that for you?" He asks, frowning when he sees the numerous items in her hands and she shakes her head hurriedly, stepping away from him quickly. Unfortunately she doesn't notice the draped tinsel across and suddenly the wrapping paper she was gripping is falling to the floor and so is she and wow this is really embarrassing.

But then she doesn't feel the coldness of the ground. In fact she feels warmer. It might have something to do with the fact that there's an arm wrapped around her and a face _extremely_ close to hers (although most of the heat seems to be radiating from her own cheeks.) He's smiling, not seeming to mind their proximity or the fact that she hasn't stopped looking into his eyes yet (he's used to getting lost in hers so it's alright).

"You sure you don't need any help?" he says teasingly, helping her up but not letting go of her waist in the process.

"I..uh..thanks..uh." she stutters. Well done, Ally. Really smooth, she scolds herself "But I'm just going to..." and then she's turned back around to face the cash registers, trying to ignore the sensation of him watching her.

For a moment she thinks that he might leave her alone, and she fights the feeling of disappointment, reassuring herself that he's just they annoying guy from next door who plays his music too loud (he's also the guy who offered to carry her things and saved her from falling and has a great smile).

"C'mon we're friends! I even know where you live. " And there he is again.

"No, we aren't and wow, I wonder how?" She answers sarcastically, still with her back to him. In the window to her right she can see him put a hand to his chest and fake hurt, plastering an exaggerated expression of pain onto his face.

"Wow, that was cold." he whimpers sarcastically. "Let's be friends then. I'm Austin."

"You don't even know my name." she deadpans, taking a step forwards as the line crawls closer to the check out.

"Yes I do, Ally." he says, putting a hand on her shoulder and spinning her back round to face him. "You're Ally Dawson-"

"How do you-"

"You're a cat person-"

"Lucky guess?"

"You get up to work at your dad's music store at 5am every morning and you sometimes get a coffee at the vending machine down the hall, even though you hate caffeine and think it corrupts the brain, but you're not a morning person and it's the only thing that keeps you awake after you stay up way too late on your piano. You carry all your shopping in one go because you refuse to take two trips in the lift even though it's far easier and you wouldn't have to struggle and it'd be far smarter."

Ally's cheeks go red and she moves her mouth to protest.

"Well I-"

"You love the cold weather, yet you live in Miami, probably because you grew up here and can't bear to leave." He interrupts "You have a car but you prefer to walk because you like to watch the clouds, you have a crazy loud friend that visits you every month and tells you to get a boyfriend and you watch daytime TV when you're feeling lonely even though you hate the laugh tracks and don't find any of the jokes funny. Oh and you're alone this Christmas and you tell everyone that you're fine but I'm not sure if you are. " He pauses and waits to see if she has anything to say. When he sees that she has nothing he just shrugs.

"So no, not just a lucky guess."

For a moment there's silence as the shell-choked young women in front of him tries to think of a response. But then the all too familiar tinkering sound of the opening bars to _'baby it's cold outside'_ is heard over the stores sound system.

There's a groan and a cheer from the two neighbours and then he's singing along while she rolls her eyes. She doesn't have a chance to admire the fact that he can sing, like _really_ sing, because he's grabbing her hand and spinning her, while she tries her best not to drop her items (again). The people around them are staring at them as if they're crazy, and Ally kind of agrees, but when they start belting the song as a duet she can't bring herself to care. It's not a perfect duet. She forgets some of the words, she can't dance and he's laughing so hard that he can't breathe but it's _nice. _Perfect isn't always best.

When the song's finally over some of the people around them clap in appreciation, some of them sigh in relief and one lady titters about _'how talented they are'_ and _'how lovely Christmas is'_ and _'what an adorable couple they are'_. They both pretend they didn't hear that last one.

Now they're really close to the cash register and once they've finally caught their breaths again they settle into a comfortable silence. Despite this Ally's mind is working and buzzing and ticking.

"How did you know all that stuff about me?" She asks hesitantly, interrupting the silence. Austin doesn't look surprised.

"I like to observe interesting people." He says simply and that seems to be the only answer he's going to give. She's not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not.

"What else do you like?"

"I like pancakes and zaliens and playing christmas music really loudly in the hope that the pretty girl from next door will come and tell me to shut up, just so I can have a chance to talk to her because I _really _like her-"

"Next customer!" Ally looks up and see's that she's at the front of the line, and tries to find something to say to Austin before she leaves. Anything. But nothing comes out.

"I also spent almost an hour in a line when I had nothing to buy, just so I could talk to her." he calls after her when she starts walking away. "But I reckon we'll be seeing a lot more of each other now." He adds hopefully.

"Let me guess you'll be the one blaring Christmas music from the crack of dawn?" she calls back, rolling her eyes and trying to fight the smile while ignoring the calls from behind her. He shrugs his shoulders, ignoring the mutterings of the customers milling around them.

"Well I guess you'd better come over tomorrow and tell me to turn down the music." He says smoothly.

"I guess I should." She replies, tilting her head as if she's considering it and not bothering to fight the grin that's creeping onto her face.

"It's a date," He says and before she can even blink he's turned and is lost among the frenzied shoppers, leaving her gaping after him, not even noticing the pushing and shoving coming from all directions and the shouts of the customers behind her.

Looks like she won't be alone this Christmas after all.

**A/N: I don't even know, I really don't.**


End file.
